Pinnick hails Super Falcons’ resilience, steeliness
President of the Nigeria Football Federation and FIFA Council Member, Mr Amaju Melvin Pinnick on Thursday applauded the gutsy play “and general display of the Nigeria spirit” of the Super Falcons in Abidjan on Wednesday evening which earned Nigeria a spot at this year’s Women Africa Cup of Nations finals.
Cup holders and nine-time winners Nigeria took a 2-0 win from the first leg, and then survived a blistering first half in which goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie saved a penalty kick, to rock the Ivorians with a goal one minute before the end and achieve a 3-0 aggregate win to qualify for Morocco 2022.
“We are extremely proud of the resilience, grit and steel of the Super Falcons in achieving this qualification. Four of the starters in the first leg were winning their first caps for Nigeria, yet put up amazing performances to earn a 2-0 victory. In Abidjan, the players were all awesome and refused to cave in despite the onslaughts from the home team.
“They did a very good job and deserve commendation for this memorable outing.”
Esther Okoronkwo, winning only her second cap, broke the back of the Lady Elephants with an 89th minute goal to confirm Nigeria’s 3-0 aggregate win and passage to the 12-team 12th Women Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco in July this year.
After the victory, the Super Falcons praised the commitment and support of the President of NFF, Mr Pinnick to the team’s success, saying the NFF gave the team all it needed to succeed by providing the conducive environment and necessary implements for adequate preparation for the two-legged final qualifying round.
NFF says airport incident ‘unfortunate’
The Nigeria Football Federation has described as ‘unfortunate’ the incident that saw players and officials of the Senior Women National Team, Super Falcons delayed for over three hours at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on arrival from Abidjan on Thursday morning.
NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said: “It was an unfortunate incident, because we had our protocol officers on ground at the airport and they did the needful before the team arrived. We are a responsible organization and the various National Teams have been going out and returning to Nigeria since these covid19 protocols, procedures and guidelines started. We have never been caught napping.
“The issue had to do with covid19 protocols and we had no control over how things would be approached by the officials in charge at the airport each time. In this particular case, we fulfilled our part of the requirements. However, some other group of individuals arrived at the same time as the Super Falcons’ contingent and were bent on circumventing the process, and this compelled the health officials to adopt stern measures and even lock up some of their offices.
“It was beyond us, but we have already apologized to our players and officials over this incident.”
